Andy @ The Movies

New Predators Trailer

Last week, fan pants were soiled when a behind the scenes teaser for Predators upstaged SXSW and quickly made its way to AATM. Not a week later, the teaser trailer hits, showing more scenes of running, sweating and nervous glancing.

For its part, the trailer is pretty effective — even more so if you haven’t seen the teaser– but I’m not on board. Still.

Robert Rodriguez, who’s not directing but has his fingerprints all over the project, isn’t a guy I have a lot of faith in. The stylistically fantastic Sin City and grind-house silly Planet Terror are both emotionally repugnant “Huh-huh-huh” films– movies that value the “wouldn’t it be cool if” over soul. Combine that with the last few iterations of the Predator, especially the mean-spirited, nihilistic AVP: Requiem, and there’s plenty of room for this new entry to take on the same cretinous tone: One where the Predator went from a threatening, codified hunter to an interstellar slasher.

Still, Predator remains a franchise I’ll pay money to see every time. Hopefully, with the emphasis on “the hunt”, we’ll get something remotely worthy of association with John McTiernan’s 1987 classic.